Business notebook
Study results: Vertex Pharmaceuticals' experimental drug for treating Hepatitis C showed promise in a study of 20 patients. When given with a standard treatment, Vertex's VX-950 pill reduced the amount of virus in patients' blood 99.9 percent to near undetectable levels on average over two weeks, Vertex said.
Irrational purchase: Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., maker of the Grand Theft Auto video games, bought Irrational Games, a development studio. Terms weren't disclosed.
Lasted 3 years: The National Football League and the marketers of erectile dysfunction drug Levitra have opted to end their three-year old sponsorship deal when it expires in March.
On track: Service on the Downeaster passenger train could be extended in Maine from Portland to Brunswick as soon as 2010 if federal funds for the project become available this year. The Maine Department of Transportation is seeking $1 million to $2 million from the upcoming federal budget for preliminary engineering and design work.
Appeal: Intel Corp. urged the US Supreme Court to consider Research In Motion Ltd.'s appeal of a ruling against its BlackBerry e-mail devices. Intel filed court papers Wednesday urging the court to consider RIM's bid to reverse a finding that the devices and the system for sending wireless e-mail infringe patents owned by NTP Inc., a Virginia licensing company.
Settled: The founder of the credit counseling firm AmeriDebt agreed to pay $35 million to settle suits filed by regulators and former customers over $172 million in allegedly hidden fees the company collected. The money that Andris Pukke pays would go to a fund used to reimburse the roughly 300,000 customers the Federal Trade Commission claimed AmeriDebt Inc. deceived. Pukke is also barred from working in credit counseling, debt management, or telemarketing as part of the settlement.
Promise kept: Hedge funds ended 2005 by making good on promises to make money in a year that saw a number of these loosely regulated investment pools fail. The average hedge fund returned 9.18 percent last year, according to data published by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc., beating the broader stock market where the Standard & Poor's 500 index returned 3 percent.
IPO: Bank of China, that country's second-biggest lender, has won approval from the State Council to launch a $6 billion to $8 billion Hong Kong initial public offering in the first half of this year, sources familiar with the deal said.
(Globe wire services)
